The Pac-12 and Big 12 play nine league games, and the Big Ten will move to a nine-game schedule. When does the SEC finally get there?

Sharon from Piedmont, N.C.

Leonard Fournette (AP Photo)

This has clearly been the most divisive issue in the SEC over the last two or three years.

It’s fairly simple: the coaches (with the exception of Alabama’s Nick Saban, who doesn’t care one way or the other) want an eight-game schedule. The presidents, with the revenue-generating SEC Network beginning in August, more than likely favor a nine-game schedule.

Guess who wins that tug of war?

But the presidents, with prodding from the league’s athletic directors, still are debating the value of keeping an eight-game schedule. The thinking goes something like this:

No other league is as deep and talented as the SEC (true); no other league must put their elite teams in harms way for another week of the season (not true; any conference game is dangerous) and jeopardize a spot (or two) in the College Football Playoff.

So the dilemma is this: What’s more important to the overall health and future of the conference? The Network or the chance of eliminating a team (or teams) from the CFP?

The league wants the coaches to feel as though they have a voice — they should, and commissioner Mike Slive has done yeoman’s work balancing the two sides — but the reality is the move to nine games is happening at some point. When? More than likely the 2016 season.

We hear all the time about freshmen who can make a difference for this team or that team. Can you give us a handful of high schoolers who actually can make a difference in their first season?

Carl Jennings from Cincinnati

Let’s being with the one player who will be the most scrutinized: Kyle Allen .

The five-star quarterback recruit enrolled early and is the favorite to replace Texas A&M legend Johnny Manziel. But understand this: He’s nothing like Manziel.

He’s not breaking down defenses with his ability to break containment and scramble. He’s not running the zone read play. He’s not winning games with unthinkable athletic ability.

Keenum was brilliant at pre-snap reads and making good decisions, all things that must be learned through repetitions with Allen. He’s not buying time in the pocket with nifty footwork like Manziel; he’s going to have to make quick, smart decisions — at times against defenses he has never seen before.

That doesn’t mean he can’t do it; it means we can’t expect from Allen what we got from Manziel in Year 1.

The comparisons to Adrian Peterson and Trent Richardson — in being able to play immediately and dictate games — are spot-on. Speed, strength, vision and balance; it’s all there.

Think Derrick Henry in the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma — only think about it happening from Game 1 at LSU.

QB Jerrod Heard , Texas: David Ash is out for the summer with a fractured foot and has a history of injuries. Tyrone Swoopes played well in the spring game — against the second and third-team defenses.

If Ash can’t stay healthy — this foot fracture isn’t the issue; his ongoing head injuries are the issue — don’t think new Texas coach Charlie Strong won’t play a freshman at the most important position on the field. He did it three years ago at Louisville and it worked out well.

That’s not saying Heard has the ability of Teddy Bridgewater; it’s saying Strong will play the guy who gives him the best chance to win.

Where do you think Max Wittek will play this season? Can he be a guy who can be the final piece to the puzzle for a team like Texas?

Karen S. from Dallas

A natural sidebar to the previous question — and one that doesn’t change the answer to the previous question.

Sometimes we get too fixated on a potential transfer because it’s a quarterback, and because quarterbacks are the key to the development of every team. I’m not sold on Wittek being the key to any team’s development.

When Russell Wilson left NC State, it was a big deal because he was the offensive player of the year in the ACC transferring to a Wisconsin team that just needed a quarterback. Even when talented quarterbacks transfer, it doesn’t always work out (Jeremiah Masoli from Oregon to Ole Miss).

Nothing Wittek showed at USC screamed difference-maker. He was decent at best two years ago when he filled in for injured Matt Barkley, and failed to beat out Cody Kessler last year for the starting job. So he decided to transfer after he graduates next month, and has apparently narrowed his list to Texas and Hawaii.

He has visited Texas three times, including last weekend for the spring game. The key question: will he be any better than Swoopes or Heard (if Ash can’t play)? The harsh truth is probably not.

I’m looking for some surprises for 2014. Going to Vegas in a few weeks, and want to throw a couple of sawbucks down on some longshots. Any suggestions?

Cary from Chicago

I’m not a professional gambler; I’ll leave that up to the good folks at The Linemakers .

But I can certainly throw out some ideas, such as:

— Indiana, with 18 starters returning and an offense that will score on anyone in the Big Ten, to play in a bowl game (that means at least 6 wins).

— Mississippi State will win nine games. If you haven’t seen Dak Prescott, head over to YouTube and enjoy the show. Then there’s a potentially nasty defense and favorable schedule.

— They’ll be better than you think: Oklahoma, Wyoming, Washington, North Carolina.